Status effects are beneficial or harmful conditions that affect your Guardians or opponents in battle. These effects are triggered by core abilities, special abilities, and talents. These effects result in a variety of buffs or debuffs, many of which can stack.
Buffs display around Guardians' and opponents’ health bars depending on what kind of effects they cause. These will appear at different times over the course of the encounter.
Status Effect Terminology
Stack: An effect may have the ability to add onto itself, or "stack." This causes the effect to multiply, granting an even greater buff or debuff.
Buff: This describes a generally positive effect, usually placed on yourself or your teammates. These can range anywhere from a Focus Buff that increases your Focus attribute to a healing effect over time. For example, Belle’s core ability Enchanting Defense grants all party members a 10% Defense Buff for the duration of the encounter.
Debuff: This describes a generally negative effect, usually placed on your opponent. Debuffs may reduce your attributes, block you from healing, or cause a Stun to cease any and all actions for that Guardian. For example, Oogie Boogie’s talent Black Widow Charm causes targets to be Attack Blocked for a short period of time, keeping them from gaining any Attack Buffs for the duration.
Active: This describes an effect that is currently affecting your Guardian. Active effects have a start and end time. For example, Sulley’s special ability Sulley Slam has a 30% chance to Stun all enemies that are hit for 3 seconds. The debuff is considered active during that time.
Passive: An effect is considered passive if it affects a Guardian without its activation needing to be triggered. For example, Ariel’s talent Vital Tide grants her +5% to Health at the start of an encounter. This effect remains on Ariel until you remove her talent, and does not require any conditions for its activation.
Block: A block effect means you cannot be affected by certain types of status effects. For example, Scar's special ability Long Live the King inflicts a Heal Block for as long as the target has a Wound. This means the target is unable to receive healing effects as long as it has a Wound.
Viewing Buffs & Debuffs During Combat
Tapping the pause icon in the top center of the combat screen during any encounter will allow you to learn more about which status effects are currently in play. This feature will pause the game and can be toggled on and off.
Tap on any Guardian or opponent in order to view more information.